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The Dunedin cable tramway system was a cable tramway system in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is significant as Dunedin was both the second city in the world to adopt the cable car (the first being San Francisco) and the last to abandon their cable cars (leaving only San Francisco operating).
History
The Dunedin cable tramway system was opened in 1881, the engineer responsible being George Smith Duncan. For this system he introduced the pull curve and the slot brake; the former was a way to pull cars through a curve, since Dunedin's curves were too steep to allow coasting, while the latter forced a wedge down into the cable slot to stop the tram, which was deemed necessary after the line had a runaway tram some two months after it openend.
The last line closed on March 2, 1957.
See also
Sources
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